Tag: clay

As you probably have noticed, I have been awfully quiet lately. I’m sorry about that! I promise to do my very best to be a better blogger for you. And I do have some great things in store! A couple of new post series that I’m sure you’ll love, and before that, a post about making your own makeup!

But now, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you about my newest craze. Clay! Oh my, the things it does to your skin. Cleanses, tightens, softens strenghtens and I don’t know what. If you have trouble with oily skin or acne, clay is your bestest friend in the whole wide world.

Recently, I picked up a box of green clay from an organic shop in Helsinki. Before that, I had only used white clay/kaolin clay, that I bought from the hardware store – it was actually meant for whitening floorboards *krhm*. I mean, it’s the same product and will certainly be good for your skin, but one might assume that when making a product meant to be walked upon, they don’t really care as much about preserving all the minerals that make clay so fantastic for you.

So I was quite astounded by the way my face looked after a face wash with the green clay. (more…)

Cabbage… Might not be the sexiest of veggies, but it’s darn good for you. And did you know that it’s also great for skin and hair? Cabbage contains loads of vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, C and E and minerals such as calcium, iron, sulphur and magnesium. Plus, cabbage has anti-inflammatory properties, which is why it’s traditionally been used as wound compresses.
While cabbage is fantastic in skin care, for all types of skin, whether dry, aged or greasy, this time I’d like to focus on cabbage for your hair. As I mentioned, cabbage contains a large quantity of sulphur, which is an essential mineral for your hair and nail health. Including cabbage in your diet will indeed improve your hair and nail strength, but also an external use of cabbage in your hair is going to leave you with shiny, nourished hair, and also cabbage is said to prevent hair loss and even promote hair growth.The great thing about cabbage is that the large leaves can be used whole to cover your hair when you’re doing a hair mask. This has many benefits for your hair:

The cabbage leaves lock the moisture in, and enhance the properties of the hair mask

At the same time, the cabbage leaves provide your hair with all the vitamins and minerals it contains

It keeps the hair mask in place, making it less messy

It protects your hair from outer harm such as heat, if you’re wearing a hair mask in the sauna for instance (also when not wearing a hair mask, you should put a cabbage leaf on your head when going to sauna, so as to protect your hair from overheating)

You can also use the cabbage leaves as “curlers” (as in the picture) which will give your hair more volume.

For the past weeks when taking a bath, I’ve put heaps of olive oil in the water (about 1 dl), which feels really nice and makes my skin really soft afterward, without being too oily (which is sometimes the problem when oiling after a shower or bath).

But at Spa Index, which has a really good section of easy home spa recipes, I found a recipe that I was very excited to try out. It’s called a Roman bath soak. I know nothing that includes shampoo (like this recipe) should be called Roman anything, but I totally fell for this decadent sounding name. And when pouring this into your bath water you really will feel pampered. No slaves feeding you grapes could have done this better!

This soak will soften your skin and also foam a bit. Plus the fragrance oils will give you an aromatherapeutic experience and will definitely add to the relaxation. (more…)

Having an unusual a hobby as making your own skin and hair care products, it can sometimes be a bit of a hassle to find the material to work with. There are some good webshops that sell raw material for homemade skin care, but a lot of material can also be found in local shops and similar, as long as you know where to look. Here are a few tips: (more…)

I love scrubs! Each wash leaves you with glowing skin, and they are really easy to make – basically anything with grains give a scrubbing effect.

This recipe is a mixed face scrub/mini mask. Either, you can apply to your face, rinse it off and you’re done. But if you have more time, just leave it on for a couple of minutes (up to 15) to let the clay dry, and nourish your skin even more. I usually leave it on while brushing my teeth and then rinse it off 🙂
It’s also really handy since it’s in powder format, so you never have to worry about it going off (If you make sure no water comes into the jar, it will last you forever, literally.) (more…)

Rhassoul is a clay that is dug in the Atlas mountains in Morocco. It has many other names, including Ghassoul clay, red Moroccan clay or African clay. Rhassoul is, like other cosmetic clays, rich in minerals like silica, potassium and magnesium. But Rhassoul differs from other cosmetic clays in the sense that it has an amazing power of absorption and can thus also be used as for cleansing and detoxing. As part of my hair washing test, I have tried rhassoul as shampoo. (more…)